Tag Archives | Peter Wickham

THE LIFE AND MIRACLES OF ST CUTHBERT

By The Venerable Bede
Read by Peter Wickham
2 hours 57 minutes

For centuries, St Cuthbert (c634-687) was the most worshipped saint in England, revered for his virtuous life and his miracles. Even centuries after his death, stories were told of his body remaining ‘incorrupt’ in his tomb. What we know about his work and character comes from the records and significantly from the writings of the Venerable Bede (673-735). His Life of St Cuthbert (published in 721) was part of the tradition of hagiography, a reverential biography of a saint. Continue Reading →

THE DECLINE OF THE WEST

By Oswald Spengler
Read by Peter Wickham
56 hours 49 minutes

The Decline of the West – Volume 1 published in 1917, Volume 2 in 1922 – has exercised and challenged opinion ever since. It was a huge undertaking by Oswald Spengler (1880-1936), formerly an unpublished historian and philosopher who set out to radically reconsider history – the rise and fall of world civilisations and their cultures. His primary view was to reject the established Eurocentric paradigm (Ancient/Classical, Medieval – and, following the Renaissance – Modern) and to take a totally new perspective. Continue Reading →

THE ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY

By Robert Burton
Read by Peter Wickham
56 hours 49 minutes

The Anatomy of Melancholy is one of the most remarkable books ever written. First published in 1621, and hardly ever out of print since, it is a huge, varied, idiosyncratic, entertaining and learned survey of the experience of melancholy, seen from just about every possible angle that could be imagined. Its subtitle explains much: Continue Reading →

THE ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH PEOPLE

By The Venerable Bede
Read by Peter Wickham
12 hours 57 minutes

The Ecclesiastical History of the English People was written in Latin by the Venerable Bede (673-735), a Benedictine monk living in Northumbria, an important Christian centre in the 8th century. It is a remarkable document, tracing, in general, early Anglo-Saxon history, and in particular, as the title proclaims, the growth and establishment of Christianity against the backdrop of the political life. Continue Reading →

PHYSICS

By Aristotle
Read by Peter Wickham
9 hours 54 minutes

No less a figure than Bertrand Russell remarked that Aristotle’s Physics was ‘extremely influential and dominated science until the time of Galileo’. This was despite the fact that this work is as much a collection of ‘lectures on nature’ rather than dealing with the science of physics as we understand the term. Aristotle considers ‘the principles and causes of change, or movement’ behind both animate and inanimate things.’ Continue Reading →

Peter Wickham

Peter has been a working actor for over thirty years. In theatre he has played a wide range of roles – from Laertes in ‘Hamlet’ to the Narrator in a dance version of ‘Peter and The Wolf’ at the Hackney Empire and including rep all around the UK. He has often chosen jobs involving travel before career development and work has taken him from Laos to Venezuela and through much of Eastern Europe. An active TV and film career started with ‘Z-Cars’ and the film of ‘Mary, Queen of Scots’, moved through ‘Angels’, ‘Some Mothers do Have ‘Em’ and ‘Only Fools and Horses’ to a starring role in ’10 A.M.’ – an indy movie yet to see the light of day! Most importantly (to him), Peter enjoyed a spell on the BBC Radio Rep and has appeared in hundreds of radio plays, short stories, serials and poetry recordings. That all led to audio books of which he has now recorded more than three hundred, and his only regret about this most enjoyable form of work is that he doesn’t usually travel far to do it!

PHILOSOPHY OF MIND

By Georg Wilhelm Hegel
Read by Peter Wickham
7 hours 12 minutes

Philosophy of Mind is the third and final part of the Encyclopaedia of the Philosophical Sciences, the collection in which Hegel (1730-1831) offered an overview of his life’s work. Though originally written in 1817, he revised it in 1830, thus providing a finished form the year before his death. Continue Reading →

THE ELEMENTS OF THEOLOGY

By Proclus
Read by Peter Wickham
5 hours 20 minutes

Proclus—or “Proclus of Athens” as he is sometimes known—is widely and rightly considered to be one of the most significant later Neoplatonist philosophers. At age 40 (c. 437 CE), or so, Proclus became Head of the revived Plato’s Academy in Athens. Continue Reading →

THE ENNEADS VOLUME 1 (1-3)

By Plotinus
Read by Peter Wickham
14 hours 18 minutes

Plotinus (204/5 -270CE), born in Lycopolis, Egypt when it was part of the Roman Empire – was a major figure in the philosophical school later called Neoplatonism. Neoplatonists viewed reality as deriving from a single force or figure expressed as ‘the One’. Continue Reading →

THE ENNEADS VOLUME 2 (4-6)

By Plotinus
Read by Peter Wickham
21 hours 6 minutes